Archive for March, 2009

Please be on the lookout for a Silver Nissan Versa (2007 or 2008 model, unsure if sedan or hatchback) with damage to passenger side mirror and possibly scratches on passenger side of vehicle. Do not approach driver, simply record license plate, call Gilbert Police at 480-503-6500 and reference Officer J. Halliday (Badge #2144) and the accident involving Carol Winstanley on 25 March 2009 on Guadalupe Road in Gilbert. Carol was severely injured.

If you haven’t heard yet, New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO is one of the first two businesses ever to achieve The League of American Bicyclist’s Platinum level Bicycle Friendly Business designation. Tempe Bicycle Action Group congratulates New Belgium on their accomplishment and ongoing efforts to include bicycles as an integral part of their business. New Belgium Brewery’s other accomplishments in regards to bicycles include the ever popular Tour de Fat, Team Wonderbike, the Urban Assault Race and Bike-in Cinema. To read more about the award read New Belgium’s recent blog post.

April is Valley Bike Month and we have many volunteer opportunities for those who are interested. If you’re not on our member list, you missed yesterday’s email. If you are interested in volunteering during Valley Bike Month please take a moment to review the opportunities here.

This Saturday, March 21, I will be leading a special double-ride to the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market and then to Sprinkles for cupcakes! We will meet at 8 am at the Tempe Beach Park entrance for an 8-mile ride up the greenbelt, and will plan on returning by noon. It should be fun!

There was a lot to discuss at this month’s Transit Committee meeting. Some highlights, in order from least to most exciting:

1. Traffic calming projects: Mitchell Park East-West is headed for construction. Maple-Ash is headed for another neighborhood meeting to discuss some potential closure points (suggested about a year ago; dropped from plan; resurrected again). Here’s Tempe’s report on those projects.College Ave is also heading towards construction–we had some discussion about reviewing the striping of the intersection at College and Southern; I’ll try to keep everyone posted on the status of that project.

2. Bike Month: It’s coming up soon! Tempe has just released their Bike Month flyer, which lists a slew of events for the month–pick up a copy at the Transportation Center or look for it around town. Check Tempe’s Bike Month website for details on all events. Two highlights include Bikeapalooza, a biking festival where TBAG will lead a community bike ride, and Bike to Work and School Day, where TBAG’s bicycle commuters will lead rides from each of the 4 other breakfast sites towards the Tempe Transportation Center and beyond to Phoenix and Scottsdale. Stay tuned for more information about TBAG’s involvement in those events and how you can help/participate.

Here are 2 upcoming dates: On Saturday, March 14, from 9-12, there will be a walk-through along Broadway as part of the early planning phase. On Wednesday, March 18, at 6 pm, there will be a meeting in the Community Room at the Transit Center to review several concepts for the modification (i.e. several ideas for how to change things). Right now, Broadway is 3 lanes eastbound, 2 lanes westbound, with a center turn lane. Two potential concepts to reduce lanes and free up space for bicycles/pedestrians: remove 1 eastbound lane, or remove the center turn lane. One complication, however, will be handling the frontage road on the north side of Broadway.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) will collect your used bicycle gloves for donation to the Department of Public Health for use in clinics and senior centers for wheelchair and walker users. It’s okay if the fingers are frayed, so long as the padding is intact.

The gloves will be washed then matched as best as they can, so this is a good use for your ummatched singles you have laying around.

SFBC is also accepting mail in donations and as such TBAG will collect gloves and make a single mailing to SFBC on Mar 25th. If you would like to donate your used bicycle gloves please drop them off (beginning tomorrow 3/12) at 502 S. College, Tempe AZ on the 3rd floor patio of the Studios5c building between 9:30am – 5:30pm. There will be a box on the patio marked “Bicycle Glove Donations”.

First, a big thank you to our volunteers, without which we could not have operated the bike valet. Secondly, thank you to Sun Sounds of Arizona for allowing us to operate the valet and providing us with a perfectly fenced off area (we shall use it as a model for future valet at Tempe Beach Park).

On to the numbers. We collected $137 in donations to TBAG via tips and we parked 127 bicycles. We heard lots of “Bike valet? That’s cool!” comments. We’re hoping the next valet sees us reach capacity!

Our plan is to operate several more bike valets this year at Tempe Beach Park events. Stay tuned to the blog for more information.

If you’re an event organizer and would like us to operate a bike valet at your event, please contact bikevalet@biketempe.org.

The bill permits cyclists to proceed through stop-signs without stopping so long as they do so safely and only when there is no cross traffic. It lets bicyclists treat stop-signs as if they are yield signs. A bicyclist would have to yield to any cross traffic in the intersection, but could proceed without stopping if there is no cross traffic